Arcade Fire with Patrick Wolf in support, Brixton Academy, 14th March 2007

Me and Tim went to see Arcade Fire on Wednesday. A band I have wanted to see since I first heard of them way back in early 2005. A gig I have been looking forward to for months.

Support was from Patrick Wolf. Here is a lad, I say lad because he came on wearing what looked like his school uniform, short shorts and everything; who has spent far too much time locked in a room with some Soft Cell records.

He sort of walked the thin line between interesting and crap. Mostly it was interesting. And I say interesting as opposed to good, as I can see that he has potential, but he's not there yet. He'll probably need a couple of albums to settle down.

Arcade Fire on the other hand, sure there were a couple of off notes but mainly all the songs were carried off brilliantly. We weren't sure about the new album, having not had time to really let it sink into our psyches yet. Just as Funeral took several months to take hold of me, until one day I realised I was playing it constantly, I fully expect to find myself listening to Neon Bible on rotation some time soon.
I lost count of what they played or didn't play. There was a lot of Neon Bible, if not all of it, played. Songs of Funeral got the best reception. I think he thought we weren't enjoying ourselves during some of the songs off the new album, we were so quiet taking it all in. When they did Cold Wind you could have heard the tumbleweed go through the crowd.


I built this gig up so much in my mind, that I was a little worried that it might end up all going wrong and them being a disaster. I'd heard rumours of off gigs in the past. But I am pleased to report that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Even the tall/irritating people who came to stand in front of us just as the Arcade Fire came on couldn't hide the fact they were great.

I can't wait till I get chance to see them again.

I'm off now to listen to them on my ipod. On repeat.

Colin

For those of you missing our friend Colin, RIPP, Rest in Peace Pineapple, you can now buy your very only daddy of pineapples, a Pineapple Tree, from Ikea.

With moving from the flat to a house with a garden, I may well have to get myself a potted Colin for the garden.

End of an Era

Some of you may or may not know, but I’ve moved from old Camden Town. Shock.

More shocking still I’ve moved to the countryside. Don’t panic though. I’m still well within commutable/drinking distance of the big smoke. In fact my journey in to work these days takes less time than it did when I lived in Camden. I cannot tell you how much nicer it is to sit by the window of a train for 40 minutes, than it was to get the Northern Line, change, Victoria Line, change, the District Line, changing at Earls court, all the while being herded on and off carriages like cattle, squashed on with someone’s elbow so precariously close to my face one jolt by the tube driver and I’d have a black eye for trouble.

So I’m living in a cosy little flat with Tim. And in few weeks time we are going to be moving again, glutton for punishment what can I say! This time we’re moving into a little terrace house on the school grounds, complete with its own patio and garden.

BBQ in the summer anyone?

Ecmod 2007 Awards – Natural History Museum, 27th February

I had the fine old time of dressing up in a fancy frock and getting slightly drunk at an award ceremony this week. After frantically shopping along Oxford Street the Thursday before, I managed to get myself a bargain little black number from Top Shop. Reduced from £40 to just £5. Yes that’s £5. You couldn’t have sewn on its beading for that.


The awards ceremony took place at the Natural History Museum, We had a couple of tables underneath the Diplodocus in the Central Hall. Jenny Bond was the guest speaker. Poor Jenny’s speech on how well she knows Queenie, Charlie and Co. It wasn’t exactly spell binding riveting stuff, not helped by her pretending like she’s one of them.


GLTC was up for an award in the Best Children’s Business in Mail Order, up against such strong contenders as Mothercare and Muddy Puddles.

Needless to say, the best one won.

The Ecmod Winners


Since Michelle and I were kindly put up in a hotel for the night by work, so that we didn’t have to leave halfway through the evening to catch our last trains. Cue a few of us piling back to the hotel after the awards had finished to make use of the late opening of the hotel bar. We managed to get to bed a very healthy 3.30 in the morning. We only had to worry about work the next morning… fortunately we had been given a late start time for the morning of 11am. And we might have got enough sleep had we not been woken up by some ungodly noise 2 hours later.

It was actually Michelle asking me to switch my alarm off that woke me. I’m there staggering around the room, half drunk, half asleep, shouting to be heard above the din this isn’t my alarm. I’m frantically running round the room, messing with switches and knobs, trying to turn the noise off. I reckon it took us a full 10 minutes to work out the noise was the fire alarm. So there we are changing into jeans, not it seems in any rush, before walking down the 7 flights of stairs (along with everyone else I might add.) Just as we hit the fresh, and I mean fresh air, we’re told it’s a false alarm and we’re allowed back inside. It’s only 5.30am.

I’m just grateful that it was only a false alarm after our shambolic efforts. But I argue, since when is a fire alarm a one long tone affair? When I hear a fire alarm I want to be hearing a whoopa whoopa noise, using a good couple of notes in there. And that my lord is the case for the defence.